📖 Biblical Definition
Vexation, in Scripture, is the shaking, grinding, or tormenting of the soul by trouble. Solomon uses it as a refrain in Ecclesiastes — "vanity and vexation of spirit" (1:14, 17; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 6, 16; 6:9) — to name the grinding emptiness of life lived under the sun without God. It is also the inward distress Lot felt in Sodom: "vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds" (2 Peter 2:7-8). The Lord allowed Paul a thorn in the flesh "to vex me" in some sense — though He answered the prayer with grace, not removal (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). Vexation in Scripture is not always sinful: a righteous soul is rightly vexed by surrounding wickedness.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The act of vexing; grief; affliction; harassing trouble of mind.
expand to see more
VEXATION, n. The act of vexing or harassing; the state of being vexed; afflicting trouble or that which causes trouble.
Solomon's vexation of spirit in Ecclesiastes is the soul's response to a world that promised meaning and delivered emptiness; Peter uses it of the righteous soul daily grieved by surrounding wickedness.
📖 Key Scripture
Ecclesiastes 1:14 — "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
Ecclesiastes 2:11 — "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought... and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit."
2 Peter 2:8 — "For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds."
Isaiah 9:1 — "Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
We have words for stress and burnout; we have lost vexation of spirit — Solomon's diagnosis of the modern condition four thousand years early.
expand to see more
Ecclesiastes is the most modern book in the Bible. Solomon, with everything, names the grinding soul-shake of a life pursued under the sun — without reference to the God above the sun — as vexation of spirit.
Modern stress-management treats vexation as an organizational problem. Solomon treats it as a theological one: the soul will grind on emptiness until it pivots upward. Burnout names a symptom; vexation of spirit names the cause.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew has multiple words for inner agitation, grief, and shaking of spirit.
expand to see more
H3708 — כַּעַס (ka'as) — vexation, grief, anger; the shaken soul.
H7474 — רַעְיוֹן (ra'yon) — striving, vexation of spirit (Ecclesiastes 1:14); the noun behind Solomon's refrain.
Usage
"Burnout is a symptom; vexation of spirit is the cause."
"Lot vexed his righteous soul daily — that is one Christian posture toward Sodom."
"Solomon's diagnosis is older than your stress; so is the cure."